College of Science & Engineering

My research seeks to understand the environmental and biological controls on carbon dioxide and water vapour exchange between plants and the atmosphere. I use a range of measurement techniques to gain a deeper insight into these processes, including measurements of how the stable isotope compositions of carbon dioxide and water vapour change during photosynthesis and transpiration. I am also interested in improving the interpretation of stable isotope signals in plant organic material, in order to gain insight into how leaf gas exchange has responded to global climate change through time and space. I am especially interested using these tools to understand how tropical rainforests are responding to climate change, and what role they are likely to play in modulating the response of the global carbon cycle to human activity in the coming century. I am currently a senior lecturer at James Cook University- Cairns. I am looking for students to join my lab, so if you are interested in discussing a research project, please do get in touch.

2010 - Charles Darwin University Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Exceptional Performance in Research

Fellowships

2011 to 2015 - Australian Research Council Future Fellow

2007 to 2010 - Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow

2006 to 2009 - Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Tupper Fellow

2005 to 2006 - Smithsonian Institution Postdoctoral Fellow

Publications

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Natural Environment Research Council - Standard Research Grant

Tropospheric ozone is the third most significant anthropogenic greenhouse gas and has been shown to reduce global plant productivity though oxidative stress. Although tropical forests have been highlighted as being potentially being vulnerable to this ozone damage, few studies have looked at role of ozone in these regions. This project will provide comprehensive measurements of the effects of ozone on plant physiology in tropical forests and use this new knowledge to parameterise global land-surface models.

Environmentally responsive biocomposite fertilisers

Indicative Funding

$100,000 over 2 years (administered by University of Queensland)

Summary

Nutrient pollution, caused by fertiliser inefficiencies, is a pervasive and ongoing problem that contributes prominently to the decline of the Great Barrier Reef and increased input costs for Queensland farmers. This project aims to deliver innovative fertilisers for Queensland?s expanding agro-nanotechnology sector with a commercial product for local manufacturers to service our bioeconomy. The project capitalises on strong industry partnership and expertise in advanced material design and manufacture, IP in material
engineering and crop science. Environmentally responsive fertilisers are novel and cost-effective
formulations, based on urea, tailored starches and functional additives, and a step towards high-yielding, high-efficiency agriculture.

Australian Research Council - Discovery - Projects

Hydraulic control on water use, growth and survival in tropical rainforest

Indicative Funding

$26,522 over 3 years (administered by ANU)

Summary

Tropical rainforests are sensitive to climate variability, especially drought, but despite large effects regionally and globally this sensitivity is poorly understood. The focus of this project will be to measure the drought-related limits to water transport in the woody xylem tissue of trees in Australian tropical rainforests, in order to understand how this influences tree water use, photosynthesis, health and mortality risk. The intention is to compare forests that contrast strongly in seasonal drought stress, and to use the information to develop a model designed for speciesdiverse forest, with subsequent potential global application. The outcomes will inform fundamental ecology, conservation science and Earth system model development.

Investigators

Patrick Meir and Lucas Cernusak in collaboration with Rafael Oliveira, Maurizio Mencuccini, David Galbraith and Emanuel Gloor
(Australian National University, College of Science & Engineering, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, University of Edinburgh and University of Leeds)

Skyrail Rainforest Foundation - Research Funding

Are mountaintop endemic plants constrained in their distribution by physiology?: Thermal adaptation and acclimation to climate change

Indicative Funding

$5,000

Summary

Bioclimatic modelling predicts that a number of mountaintop endemic plants from northeast Queensland face a potential risk of extinction due to climate change, however, little is known of their physiological plasticity, especially their thermal tolerances and acclimation potential. I aim to fill this knowledge-gap by studying their physiological tolerances across a range of temperatures in controlled glass house conditions and use these results in mechanistic models to predict their distributions under future climatic scenarios. By doing so, I will be able to answer whether it is the physiology that limits their distribution and could potentially aid in their conservation.

Wet Tropics Management Authority - Student Research Grant Scheme

Future climate scenarios indicate a considerable threat to tropical rainforests, but the implications of this threat are yet to be fully understood. Here, we develop and parameterize two individual-based ecophysiology process models, MAESPA and TFSv.2SP, using site specific trait, growth and meteorological data. These models will be used to simulate Net Primary Productivity as a function of water-use, and light availability to evaluate the rainforest response to prevailing climate and to soil moisture deficit. MAESPA and TFSv.2SP will be compared on their ability to simulate measured response to climate for two TERN SuperSites at the Daintree Rainforest and Robson Creek. The models will be parameterized with extant data for dominant plant species at each site, they will then be driven by the measured climate over the last 15 years and validated using time series sap flow data, flux data, and/or stand level productivity data. Following this model validation exercise, site specific climate predictions for the next 50 years will be acquired from CSIRO and UNSW to run the models in a predictive mode to estimate potential future trajectories for these two sites

Investigators

James Milner, Michael Liddell, Lucas Cernusak and Patrick Meir
(College of Science & Engineering and Australian National University)

Keywords

Rainforest; drought experiment; Wet Tropics; Vegetation

Wet Tropics Management Authority - Student Research Grant Scheme

The effects of drought on the phenology and eco-physiology of tree species in a tropical rainforest

Indicative Funding

$3,800

Summary

Understanding the impacts of climate change has important implications for the conservation of our natural resources and the successful future management of our planet. This project aims to analyze the reproductive phenology of many different species and use carbon and oxygen stable isotopes from leaves in different stages of development in order to understand a knowledge gap in plant eco-physiology, phenology and climate change studies. This approach has been little used for tropical species, and even less for evergreen ones. There is still a lack of connection between phenology and physiology in studies of carbon uptake and photosynthetic activity. Besides being undoubtedly important to the Earth?s climate regulation, tropical forests are still poorly understood, especially when it comes to phenology of wet tropical forests and evergrees tree species. Stable isotopes are an innovative technique to further understand how trees are responding to climate change and what we may expect in the future, enabling us to fill the lack of understanding of vegetation processes influenced by biotic and abiotic factors.

Skyrail Rainforest Foundation - Research Funding

This project aims to identify environmental factors (such as varying altitudes, humidity, temperature, rainfall and carbon dioxide concentrations) that change the stable oxygen isotopic ratio within the wood and leaves of rainforest plants. This will be done through analysis of samples collected from wet tropics forests, and from grown plants in controlled greenhouses (with varying temperatures and CO2 levels). The results will help to explain how plants have responded to past environmental changes, and to infer how they will respond to future changes. This will assist in the development environmental management practices of the wet tropics bioregion.

Australian Research Council - Discovery - Projects

This project will determine when and to what extent the air inside leaves becomes unsaturated with water vapour. All current interpretation and modelling of leaf gas exchange assumes saturation under all circumstances. Compelling evidence has been obtained suggesting this is not true under moderate air vapour pressure deficits. A novel technique will be employed to assess the water vapour concentration of the air inside leaves based on stable isotope analysis of carbon dioxide and water vapour exchanged between leaves and air. The project will provide fundamental knowledge about how stomata regulate photosynthesis and water use, with significant implications for modelling vegetation function and for improving the performance of crop plants.

Investigators

Lucas Cernusak and Graham Farquhar in collaboration with Nate McDowell
(College of Science & Engineering, Australian National University and Los Alamos National Laboratory)

Keywords

leaf gas exchange; Stomata; Stable Isotopes

Wet Tropics Management Authority - Student Research Grant Scheme

This project aims to identify environmental factors (such as varying altitudes, humidity, temperature, rainfall and carbon dioxide concentrations) that change the stable oxygen isotopic ratio within the wood and leaves of rainforest plants. This will be done through analysis of samples collected from wet tropics forests, and from grown plants in controlled greenhouses (with varying temperatures and CO2 levels). The results will help to explain how plants have responded to past environmental changes, and to infer how they will respond to future changes. This will assist in the development environmental management practices of the wet tropics bioregion.

Powerlink Queensland - Contract Research

Abrasive Blasting - Are There Any Environmental Concerns

Indicative Funding

$74,284 over 2 years

Summary

The re-surfacing and re-use of existing high voltage towers instead of removing and replacing with new structures has the potential to alter the way that power transmission infrastructure is used in the long term in Queensland. This project will look at using abrasive blasting in the high value and sensitive landscape of the rainforests of the Wet Tropics and will develop the science narrative around how the process interacts with the local environment.

My research seeks to understand the environmental and biological controls on carbon dioxide and water vapour exchange between plants and the atmosphere. I use a range of measurement techniques to gain a deeper insight into these processes, including measurements of how the stable isotope compositions of carbon dioxide and water vapour change during photosynthesis and transpiration. I am also interested in improving the interpretation of stable isotope signals in plant organic material, in order to gain insight into how leaf gas exchange has responded to global climate change through time and space. I am especially interested using these tools to understand how tropical rainforests are responding to climate change, and what role they are likely to play in modulating the response of the global carbon cycle to human activity in the coming century. I am currently a senior lecturer at James Cook University- Cairns. I am looking for students to join my lab, so if you are interested in discussing a research project, please do get in touch.